Rediscovering The Mandela Effect and Its Neuroscience

Before Nelson Mandela passed on
December 5, 2013; he was in prison. A lot of people seemed to believe this and
as a result, a phenomenon called The
Mandela Effect was born.

Basically, many people thought that Nelson Mandela actually lost his
life when he was in prison. Who wouldn’t believe this piece of information when
it was backed up with news clips from his funeral, several rioting activities
in cities, the mourning over his death in South Africa, and the heartbreaking
speech of his widow. But then, it was announced that he was still alive and
barely dead. These and more are as fascinating as the lost library of Hernando Columbus.

False Memories

For those who already heard about his death, their first reaction might
be maybe, they just misunderstood some parts of the news. However, the fact
that most people recall that Nelson Mandela died inside the prison only means
that they have the same “false” memories. Then, there’s the death of
Billy Graham. Just like Mandela, he was also alive during the time when people
begun reporting about his death. There are some that stated that people were
only confused or there has been a mixed up of information since Mr. Graham’s
retirement was broadcast on television, as well as the funeral of his wife. People
who clearly remembered the funeral coverage and the retirement announcement wholly
disagree. To make everything clear, Billy Graham died in February 2018.

Present and Vivid Memories

People have a lot of encounters about odd conflicts between the world
they are presently living in and their vivid memories. For instance, during the
2010 Dragon Con, there is a person who insisted that he saw a certain Star Trek
episode that wasn’t even filmed according to one of the actors of the show. The
person who recalled the non-existent episode was not wild-eyed or weird. In
fact, he was just a typical person and was able to reference the episode
through a routine conversation. When he knew that the episode was never filmed,
he was surprised and instantly tried to look for logical explanations on why he
had such “false” memory.

But the discovery that the “Berenstein Bears” books were never
published and there was no movie that had the line, “Luke, I am your
father”… that’s when everyone lost it for the Mandela Effect. This phenomenon
instantly went viral.

Memory Errors

All of these are not just typical memory errors. As a matter of fact, it
was as if they were carefully-planned sequential events or incidents that
happened in the past. For many people, these are way beyond the regular range
of forgetfulness. But the real question is what’s happening? And what’s the
reason behind it?

Parallel Realities

According to several sci-fi explanations, the Mandela Effect is
associated with quantum science, paralleled realities, alternate history, and
real-life “Sliders” experiences. However, when it comes to the
Mandela effect, there’s no such as things one-size-fits-all explanation. Some
might be due to problematic memories, others are cause by online pranks or
mistakes in news reports. But then, there are those that can’t be explained.

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